Dear Sarah,
In looking at hundreds of depositions in marital litigation from
15th-century diocese of London (from 1460s to c. 1500), I have never yet
found a bride wearing white--at least not that I remember off the top of my
head. There is plenty of evidence of what the woman, the man, and the
witnesses were wearing when they contracted marriage (the clothes of the
parties are frequently described, especially their colour, as a
corroborating detail in the testimony), although in most cases the evidence
relates to the crucial first exchange of consent rather than the church
solemnization, which usually occurred later. In that evidence, whether in a
home or church, women wear many different colours, although rarely (never?
one hates to say never) white--one gathers that they probably wore their
best dress, but there was no particular custom in England at that time to
wear any other particular colour. They wear the usual tawny, russet, blue,
sometimes green, murrey, etc. (and the men wear the same). I think the lack
of white simply stems from there being relatively little white
cloth--although I'm no expert on textiles. The social station of those
involved in these cases ranges from relatively low to gentry (although
relatively few of the latter). There *are* references to clothes being
specifically prepared for the nuptials (i.e. the church solemnization), but
I don't think off the top of my head I have any specific references to what
they looked like or what colour they were (preparation of the clothing was
seen as evidence that someone had the intention to marry, which is why it
would come into the case). If you're interested, let me know, and I'll look
out for it when I have time to go through my notes.
I believe, although this is very fuzzy, that the modern western tradition of
wearing white is a Victorian development. But there I'm happy to be
contradicted since I'm unsure.
I'd also be very happy to hear about any other evidence regarding wedding
clothes in the Middle Ages.
Shannon McSheffrey
History, Concordia U.
Montreal, QC
----- Original Message -----
From: Sarah Salih <[log in to unmask]>
To: medieval-religion <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, June 07, 1999 8:05 AM
Subject: White Weddings
> Dear All,
> In the final stages of my thesis, I'm trying to sort out all those nagging
little loopholes which
> seem to have crept in; though this is not strictly a religious question, I
wonder if the collective
> expertise of the list might be able to help out? What I need to know is
whether it was normal
> for brides in later medieval England to wear white. I know that white is
generally associated
> with purity, brideship etc and so would be appropriate, but not whether
this translated into
> actual practice, and I'm a little dubious about this, as a white dress
would surely be such a
> heavily symbolic garment that it would be difficult to wear more than
once - which seems
> wasteful. I know that Katherine of Aragon wore a white wedding dress, but
this is late, and
> high society. Our library here is not well-stocked with histories of
costume; of those I've
> found, some say that white has always been the colour of brides, some that
the custom is
> c19. So I'd be very grateful for references to a reliable general guide,
or to medieval brides
> wearing - or not wearing - white.
> Sarah Salih
>
>
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